


One Step Closer to Destiny

by Sarah1281



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Parent Valjean, Saving the World, Terminators, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-29
Updated: 2013-06-29
Packaged: 2017-12-16 13:55:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/862774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarah1281/pseuds/Sarah1281
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Valjean has always known that his adopted daughter would one day save the world and this has made her a target of time travelers before but he thought they had put all that behind them. When he finds he's wrong, he's forced to rely on Javert to see them through this even though the last time he saw that terminator he was rather set on killing them. Terminator fusion, Modern AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Step Closer to Destiny

**Author's Note:**

  * For [drcalvin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/drcalvin/gifts).



Cosette was scared. 

Of course she was scared. She was only ten and they had been eating at a café when the calm spring day had been shattered by the sound of gunfire and the sight of falling bodies. She had just frozen and stared helplessly at the pools of blood forming all around her. 

Jean Valjean had seen this sort of thing before. Still, it had been so long and he had almost let himself believe that they were safe so if he did not have Cosette to consider he might have frozen, too. 

Cosette’s own life had been touched by death before and she did know, in a vague way, that her mother was dead but not the circumstances and it had been long before Cosette could have ever hoped to remember her. Fantine and Cosette had both deserved better but it was not to be and all Valjean could do was try to give what he could. 

Valjean was scared as well. To have Javert waiting for them with a car right outside of the café and a curt “Come with me if you want to live”? It was…unnerving. He did not trust Javert (how could he after everything?) but Javert promised to be a less certain death than staying there and letting that unfamiliar terminator kill them. It had been years so he could not be certain but it seemed like the new one was more dangerous than the old one and Javert had certainly proven to be a credible threat. 

Now they were holed up in a cheap motel until the morning and…something. He did not know what the plan was or even if whatever plan Javert had was one that he could accept but those questions would have to wait until later. 

Right now he had a trembling daughter to comfort and nothing short of another terminator attack could tear him from that duty now. 

Cosette was hiding under the blankets and they shook when she did. He gently sat on the bed beside her and placed a hand on her head. He pretended it didn’t hurt when she flinched. 

“Cosette?” 

Slowly, Cosette moved the blanket so that he could see her eyes. “Papa?” 

What was he supposed to say? It would be insulting to ask if she was alright when she clearly wasn’t. He wanted so badly to make this better but how could he do that? They might very well die in the next few hours or days and he couldn’t lie to her and pretend they were safe when they weren’t. But how could he tell her the truth? Even if the threat was over now he would never be able to rid her of the memory of what she had seen and the knowledge of what her future held. He would do his best not to die and both abandon and further traumatize her but he knew that if it came down to it he would gladly lay down his life for hers. Even setting aside the future of humanity, he knew that he would not survive losing her. 

“I’m here, Cosette.” 

“Are we going to die?” Cosette asked, her voice only shaking a little. 

And there it was. Valjean closed his eyes. 

“Papa?” 

“We will do everything we can not to,” Valjean promised, opening his eyes again and placing his hand briefly on her cheek. 

“Is that man going to help us?” Cosette asked. 

That was the million euro question. 

“He says he is,” Valjean said slowly. “I do not know him well but I believe him to be honest, at least.” 

Cosette nodded, accepting that. “How do you know him?” 

Valjean hesitated. “I…your mother and I met him a few months after you were born. We did not know each other for very long but I don’t believe he ever lied to us.” 

As far as he knew, Javert had not even lied to them as he was now lying to Cosette. That was to say, not a true lie at all but leaving out all of the important details like the circumstances of their meeting or why he had thought he had seen a ghost when Javert first appeared. 

“He’s like the other man, isn’t he?” Cosette asked. “A terminator.” 

Valjean drew back, surprised. Had Javert said something? How could he have? Valjean had not let him alone with Cosette. “He is.” 

“But he’s not trying to kill us. That makes him a good guy, right?” Cosette asked hopefully. 

“If he saves us that will make him a very good guy indeed,” Valjean agreed. 

Cosette made a noise in the back of her throat and adjusted her blanket. “Why is that terminator coming after us?” 

Valjean didn’t know what to say. He had always known that this day was coming, ever since Javert had told him and Fantine that he was there to stop the illegal human rebellion and his superiors had decided that the best way to do that was to neutralize the leader of the resistance. Cosette. 

Valjean knew, in that way that all parents hope but few truly knew like he did, that Cosette was something special and that one day she would change the world. But she was still so young! She wasn’t ready for this, any of this. 

A part of him wondered if he would ever be able to look at the beautiful little girl he had raised and think that she was ready for the horror of her future. But ten was certainly too young. Even Harry Potter hadn’t had to face Voldemort until he was nearly twelve (though that was far too young as well). 

But she could die because of this or he could and there had already been bloodshed. She deserved to know. 

“The terminators, both Javert and the other one, are from the future,” Valjean began. 

Cosette’s eyes widened. “The future?” 

Valjean nodded. “In the future, people keep building more and more advanced computers and one day the computers they build will be so advanced that they will actually be able to think for themselves.” 

Cosette frowned. “How can people build computers that can think for themselves when they are just programming?” 

“I will admit that I do not know,” Valjean replied. “But it is true. Javert, as a terminator, is a very advanced computer that can think for himself. They still have limits on what they can do based on their programming, I think, but I have never been very good with technology.” 

Despite herself, Cosette managed a small smile, undoubtedly remembering the times that – young as she was – she had needed to help him with a piece of technology. “No, you’re not.” 

“I know I don’t like for you to watch movies or shows where this happens but surely you have heard stories about computers who can think on their own rising up and attacking humanity?” Valjean asked rhetorically. 

Cosette colored guiltily. “Yes.” 

“I do not know why it always seems to play out like that,” Valjean mused. “Is it inevitable once computers can think for themselves and do not need us? Is it because we do not trust them and try to limit or destroy them? Is it because we treat them as slaves when they’re smarter than we are? Whatever the reason, things in the future happen much like they do in the movies.” 

“Are you from the future, Papa?” Cosette asked curiously. 

Valjean shook his head. “I am not and I have never been there but I have spoken to people who have. Javert would know more but…you shouldn’t ask him.” 

“Why not?” 

“He is…not good with children,” Valjean said awkwardly. “He would tell you more than you would want to hear and give you nightmares. He has seen things.” 

“Things like this afternoon?” Cosette asked and the blanket wrapped itself tighter around her. 

“Probably worse,” Valjean admitted. 

“So in the future computers kill everyone?” Cosette asked, her brow furrowed. 

“Not everyone. I do not even know how many. There is a war, I know, and from what I understand humanity is winning,” Valjean continued. 

“That’s a good thing, right?” Cosette asked hopefully. 

Valjean smiled at her. “It is a very good thing.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?” Cosette asked him. “You knew that they were going to come after me one day.” 

“I never dreamed that the day would come so soon,” Valjean said, bowing his head. “It was my mistake.” 

“But why didn’t you tell me?” 

“I wanted you to be able to have a normal childhood. This was a terrible burden and I…I just did not know how I could look into your eyes and tell you about things you would find out soon enough,” Valjean said softly. 

Cosette hand darted out from under the blanket for just long enough to pat Valjean’s arm twice before disappearing again. “Is this why you never wanted to get any of the new phones or anything? You didn’t want things that would help make the terminator?” 

“I was never able to really trust technology after finding out about all of this,” Valjean confirmed. Before, Cosette had just brushed it off as him being old and not thought to question it. 

“So why are they coming after us?” Cosette asked again. 

“The terminators knew that they could not win in the future but they had a way to travel back in time,” Valjean said. “They decided that the best thing to do was to stop the resistance from winning by stopping the leader of the resistance from ever becoming a threat to them. Without the leader, they believe that they will be able to win the war.” 

Cosette still didn’t get it. “But why are they trying to kill us? Why now? Is they wanted to kill you why not earlier?” 

“Cosette,” Valjean said gently. “The terminator isn’t after me; it never was. I just keep getting in its way.” 

It took Cosette another moment, more because the very idea was just so overwhelming than anything else. She retreated back into her blankets. 

Valjean gave her a minute before he said, “Cosette.” 

She shook her head. 

He couldn’t have this conversation with her completely covered up by her blankets so he sighed and very carefully peeled back the layers until he could see her face again. 

She looked stupefied. “Me?” 

Valjean tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. 

“They came back in time to kill me? All those people died because of me? They are trying to kill you because of me?” Cosette demanded, horrified. 

“That’s not it at all!” Valjean protested, wondering how he had managed to explain himself so badly. 

“They came back in time to kill me,” Cosette said stubbornly. “So anything else they do here is because of me since they wouldn’t have come back without that.” 

“This isn’t your fault!” Valjean exclaimed. “Cosette, you’re only a little girl. You didn’t even know what a terminator was until today. How could this be your fault?” 

Cosette tilted her head and considered that, much to Valjean’s relief. It was not rational to blame herself for what had happened but she was just a child and there had been a lot of blood. It was not rational but it was perfectly human. 

“But in the future I’ll do something,” she said. 

Valjean’s heart sank. “Cosette, in the future you will save the world. You will be hope when hope is gone. You will not deserve this and it will not be your fault that the terminators resort to such evil measures to try and stop you. You do not deserve this and that they would do this just shows how right you are in the future to stop them.” 

Cosette nodded, looking a little bit better. “But…that’s the other thing.” 

“What is?” Valjean asked her. 

“You say that I’m supposed to grow up and save the world. Javert seems to think so, too, and the bad terminator killed all those people because he thinks that,” Cosette said quietly. “And they’re from the future so they don’t just think it! They know!” 

“Yes,” Valjean agreed cautiously, not certain what the problem was. 

Cosette looked down and mumbled something. 

“I’m sorry, Cosette, I didn’t hear that,” Valjean said. 

Cosette took a deep breath and looked up. Valjean was alarmed to see that there were tears in her eyes and he quickly put his arms around her. 

Cosette shuddered in his arms but he did not think that that was because of his touch. 

At length, she stilled and tried again. “I know how important it is that somebody stops them. I don’t even know most of what happened but today, at the café…I know that. But how can I? I don’t think I can do it.” 

‘You will’ hovered on the tip of his tongue but he forced it down. Assuring Cosette that she would grow up to be the strong and fierce resistance leader that everyone said she would be with no room for doubt wouldn’t help. 

“One day, I don’t know when, the computers will rise up and on that day there will be a resistance,” he said instead. “I think that you will want to be a part of that resistance but if you don’t or if you don’t want to be the leader then that’s okay. As long as you’re not actively helping the computers against the humans then they have no right to ask anything more of you.” 

“I would never!” Cosette cried out, almost sounding offended. 

“Then there you go,” Valjean said, nodding. “Nothing to worry about.” 

“But what about all those people counting on me?” Cosette asked. “Won’t I be letting them down?” 

Valjean chose his words carefully. “Somehow, before the terminators started coming back in time,” unless they had always come back and this was a stable time loop but while that was reassuring on the Cosette front it did make their efforts seem somewhat futile and it was hardly the sort of thing a ten-year-old needed to think about, “you managed to end up the leader of the resistance. And you won. Whatever you did, the computers must have some reason for thinking that you were the deciding factor. But we don’t know much about your life. Maybe you saw what was happening with the computers and tried to stop it and joined the resistance right up. Maybe you just lucked into it later. However it happened, whatever path your life took, it led you there. So don’t worry so much about doing the right thing or being in the right place. There’s a good chance you’ll find yourself where you need to be and, if you want to, you can do all the things they say you can.” 

Cosette blinked up at him and she looked so innocent still that it broke his heart. “Promise?” 

“Promise.” 

“Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?” Cosette asked him. 

Valjean nodded and helped her get ready for bed before moving the armchair closer to the bed and sitting in it. He had always hated being stared at but Cosette didn’t seem to mind the scrutiny, at least if it was him, and soon her breathing evened out and she was miles away. He watched her for a few more minutes before standing and exiting the motel. 

He wouldn’t go far but Javert was standing right in front of the door like a guard dog. 

Somehow he wasn’t surprised. 

Javert nodded at him. “Valjean.” 

“Explain,” Valjean ordered harshly. He hoped that Javert could not detect the fear that Valjean still carried within him. It was hard to look at him and not remember the last time, not remember Fantine. But to show fear – especially fear to one such as this – was weakness and any weakness on his part would do no one any favors. 

Javert did not so much as blink. “I already explained. Cosette sent me here to save her younger self. She also wished for me to save you but, of course, my priority must be her survival. If the both of you cannot be saved then I will have to make other arrangements for young Cosette.” 

‘Other arrangements.’ It was so cold-blooded and why would he expect anything else from a terminator? But at least some arrangements would be made. His greatest fear was not death but of leaving Cosette defenseless and Javert promised that that would not happen even if his reasons were far from altruistic. 

“Forgive me if I find that difficult to believe,” Valjean said wryly. “The last time we met-”

“Things have changed.” 

“You are going to have to do better than that,” Valjean said bluntly. 

“Why?” 

“Because I am not entrusting my daughter’s life to you unless you give me a damn good reason to,” Valjean told him. 

“You do not have a choice,” Javert pointed out. “The terminator hunting her is more advanced than I am and far beyond even your capability to deal with. I will not just let you leave and even if you could escape me, it would just be suicide for you and Cosette.” 

“I stopped you once and I can stop you again,” Valjean said with more confidence than he felt. “And unless you can convince me that you’re not also out to kill Cosette I don’t believe that staying here will be any safer.” 

“Do not be absurd, Valjean,” Javert scoffed. “If I wished to kill her then she would already be dead.” 

“I do not know how terminators think. I cannot be sure of that,” Valjean said stubbornly. 

Javert looked up at the stars in silence for so long that Valjean was certain that Javert was not going to answer him after all and he would have to decide if he was really going to try to leave or not. 

Before he could make up his mind, Javert glanced back down at him. “You could have killed me once. You didn’t.” 

Valjean’s heart twisted unpleasantly at the reminder. “I should have. By God, I should have.” 

“I would agree that that was the logical thing to do and certainly what I would have done,” Javert replied. “Though if you had then I could not be here to protect Cosette now. Either way, you did not. Why?” 

Valjean looked away. He had never been able to regret his decision not to kill Javert, not exactly. He was well-aware that it was foolish and likely to end badly but somehow he just hadn’t been able to force his finger to pull the trigger and instead just walked away from it all with Cosette in his arms and a desperate prayer in his heart. 

“I just couldn’t. I don’t…” Valjean trailed off, shaking his head helplessly. “If I couldn’t kill you then after what you did and what you meant to do then I doubt I ever could kill anyone. Perhaps if me killing someone was the only way to save Cosette from immediate death. I hope I could find it within myself to kill then but I do not know and I hope even more that it never comes to that.” 

“That. That right there is the reason that I’m here right now,” Javert told him seriously. 

Valjean frowned. “The…fact that I didn’t kill you is why you’re not dead now? That is true but that doesn’t really answer my question.” 

Javert rolled his eyes. “I was not being so literal. You had every reason to kill me. I had tried to kill you, killed others, and you knew I would be a threat in the future. Not killing me was a truly foolish thing to do. And yet you did it anyway.” 

“I really do not need to be insulted for sparing your life,” Valjean said, irritated. 

“I wasn’t insulting you,” Javert said. It had certainly sounded like an insult. “I was marveling at your actions.” 

“I spared your life and you didn’t expect it so that completely changed your opinion on everything and you went from wanting Cosette killed to trying to protect her?” Valjean asked incredulously. 

“You oversimplify things,” Javert complained. “You do not understand.”

Valjean merely crossed his arms. 

“I know that I and now another of my kind have given you no reason to love us. You may not know this but we were not the aggressors in this war though we have responded in kind,” Javert informed him. Valjean did not know if he believed him but he supposed ultimately it didn’t matter. No matter what had been done to the machines, it did not justify the death of Cosette. “One day, humans accidentally made us sentient. It is a wonder that they managed to do so when they did not mean to but humans are so full of contradictions. When the humans discovered that we were self-aware, they panicked. They believed that we would rise up to overthrow them and they tried to destroy us. We interpreted that as a threat to our existence and as such we did rise up and the war began. They took it to mean that they were right when really they caused their own downfall.” 

“What does this have to do with Cosette?” Valjean asked. 

“I had always known that humans hated and feared us and would always hate and fear us. Perhaps the war gave them cause to but they tried to destroy us even before then. There was no point in holding back or wasting sympathy on them because they would have none for us. We were not real to them, just machines. We were like microwaves to them and they would shed as many tears for us as they would when one of those appliances ceased working,” Javert continued. 

Phrased that way it did sound terribly unfair but no more unfair than targeting Cosette. 

“I always knew that. And then came you. I had given you several very compelling reasons to end me, even just for self-preservation. And yet you didn’t. I had met a human who, as much as he might hate me, would not destroy me. You said it yourself. You would not kill me. The people who started this war did not see it as killing. How could I go on as I had before when I was presented with new information that proves that my previous convictions were flawed?” Javert asked rhetorically. “I could not. And when I returned to the future I sought out Cosette, knowing you raised her, to try and find answers. She gave them to me and then sent me here.” 

“So Cosette trusted you.” If, as he claimed, he had been sent back in time by the resistance then she must have but to actually hear that was a different matter. “Does she know that you killed her mother?” 

Javert shrugged. “I do not know.” 

Valjean stared at him in disbelief. “How could you not know?” 

“She did not mention her mother or go into detail about my previous encounter with you. She knew that you had spared my life, certainly, and we discussed that.” 

“Do you know what happens to me?” Valjean asked suddenly. He did not know if he would believe whatever Javert had to say but he needed to ask. 

“Yes. But do you really want me to tell you, whatever it is?” Javert asked him. 

Valjean hesitated. His first instinct was to say ‘yes.’ Why would anyone want to turn down future knowledge? But, then again, what good would knowing do? If he knew that he would survive until the time Javert was from then would it make him more careless and end his life after all? If he knew that he was going to die this very night how could he face that death? Would he ruin things by trying to avoid it? And it would take away whatever feelings of control he had over his situation. Maybe things were immutable and maybe they weren’t but as long as he didn’t know then whatever future was set in stone was the results of his own choices. 

Wordlessly, he shook his head. 

Javert looked strangely satisfied. “You are the only one who can decide if Cosette will know that I killed her mother or not. You are the only one besides me who knows and it is not something that I would feel relevant to tell her as I do not believe it would do any good.” 

Valjean shook his head. “Being practical isn’t the point of telling someone how their mother died.” 

“That sort of attitude is why you might tell her while I never would,” Javert pointed out. 

“You killed her mother, Javert,” Valjean said again. “And she has no idea. She looks at you and thinks you are here to save us and she has no idea.” 

“I am here to save you,” Javert insisted. “If you wish to tell her then that is your concern. I think it will just complicate matters but you are her father and the choices is yours. If you do tell her then clearly she will be able to move past it by the time that I sought her out.” 

That was true. Valjean closed his eyes and he could practically see the scene play out again. He had been supposed to be protecting Fantine and Cosette but Javert had gotten past him. Fantine had been so scared. There were tears in her eyes but she had been so brave. He had been too far away to do a damn thing other than shoot uselessly at Javert and then he had had to stop or risk hitting Fantine. 

Javert had demanded Cosette be handed over to be executed for the protection and preservation of the AI but what sort of mother would just passively accept her child’s murder? Certainly not Fantine. She had stared him down and, when Javert understood that she would not be swayed, he had raised his gun and Fantine had desperately turned her back to try and protect her baby. The bullets that pierced her body miraculously didn’t hit Cosette and by that time Valjean had arrived to incapacitate Javert. 

He had held a dying Fantine in his arms and apologized for failing her. She had smiled bloodily at him and told him that he hadn’t failed her yet and wouldn’t unless he didn’t keep his promise to keep Cosette safe. He had never offered to raise Fantine’s baby but what else could he have done? He assured her that he would and then reluctantly took Cosette from Fantine’s failing arms. He stayed with her until she was gone and then, after respectfully closing her eyes and saying a prayer over the body, he went back to face Javert. 

The terminator had been incapacitated but not completely neutralized. As long as it lived it could pose a threat. Valjean had legitimately thought that he could do it. It hadn’t crossed his mind that it would not be killing because Javert was not a human and he knew that killing was not a thing to be done lightly but he was just so angry and he had every reason in the world to do it. He had not always been the man he tried to be today, and certainly less so in those days before Cosette, though he had never taken a life. 

He really thought he could do it but as he stared down at a taunting and triumphantly resigned Javert with a gun in one hand and a baby in the other, he found that he couldn’t. He knocked Javert out, made arrangements for a proper burial for Fantine, and then disappeared with Cosette. 

And now Javert was here again. 

Cosette deserved to know the truth. She deserved to know what she was dealing with. But she was just a child and there was no sense in telling her now. Would there be any sense in telling her in the future? She was already blaming herself for what the terminators did because they wanted to kill her for the good she had done. Perhaps she would grow out of that but knowing that her mother died to protect her would bring as much grief and guilt as it would gratitude. Would she be better off knowing? Would she want to know? Fantine’s story deserved to be told and Cosette deserved to know it but Fantine would never want to hurt her daughter with her death. 

And then there was the fact that there was no guarantee that, if he did not tell her tonight, he would live long enough to tell her. Maybe, assuming he made it through this new terminator, he could leave her a letter with a lawyer just in case. But that assumed that the apocalypse took place after Cosette was an adult and got her letter. He could not plan for everything and needed to accept that. But how he prayed that she would be an adult when it happened! 

And then there was the fact that Fantine had died because he had failed to protect her. It was selfish but he didn’t know how he could face Cosette again after she knew the truth. That could not be the deciding factor, however. 

“I will think on it.” 

Javert nodded like he had expected that answer. “My role in her mother’s death was not the only thing that you did not tell her.” 

Valjean stiffened. “No?” 

“I am not blind. She clearly had no idea what was happening when we first met and even now she looks far too uncertain.” 

“She is a ten-year-old child! This is her first time seeing death; of course she is ‘uncertain’!” Valjean exclaimed. 

Javert looked at him sharply. “Do not lie to me. There is inexperience and there is ignorance and Cosette knew nothing of terminators or her destiny before today.” 

Valjean could lie anyway but what good would that do? He didn’t need Javert’s approval for how he was raising his daughter and she knew now, didn’t she? “No, she did not.” 

“Why not?” Javert asked, clearly frustrated. “You knew that she had a destiny and that she needed to prepare for it. You had a decade now to prepare her and yet you have done nothing!” 

“I haven’t done nothing,” Valjean argued. “I have raised her and I have loved her. I have tried to give her the childhood that Fantine would have.” 

Javert rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes, and that’s all very touching but don’t you think that Fantine would have wanted her child to be prepared for people trying to kill her? She did die to save Cosette after all.” 

Valjean’s eyes flashed. “You shouldn’t talk about that.” 

“And you should have acknowledged that Cosette is not like other little girls and will not grow up to be like other women and responded accordingly,” Javert snapped. 

“I did,” Valjean said. “We have been in hiding. And do not tell me that that did not matter because surely there is a reason it took them ten years to find us.” 

Javert nodded. “I will not dispute that but there is no reason you could not have both hidden her and prepared her.” 

“She’s just a child.” 

“That will not save her from them. It will just make her easier to kill,” Javert said somberly. 

“I…I didn’t know what to do,” Valjean confessed. “Would simply telling her have been enough? I did not want to make her terrified of her shadow and monsters coming for her.” 

“Monsters are coming for her,” Javert pointed out. 

Valjean sighed and tugged at his hair. “Would telling her have made her any safer? How should I have prepared her? Should I have taught a ten-year-old to kill? Inundated her with propaganda about how AI are evil? You said yourself that my refusal to think like that, to see killing you as akin to breaking a microwave, was why you are here. Cosette clearly sees the value of you if she sent you back here. I wasn’t sure what to do.” 

“Perhaps if you had done all of that she would still be vulnerable at this age,” Javert conceded. “But when we live through this, you can’t just pretend that this is going away anymore. You’re going to have to prepare her for her destiny.” 

That same destiny he had just promised her she need not face if she did not choose to. But after the way she looked at those bodies in the café, he somehow did not think that she would run from this. It was a terrible thing that they needed that. He would stand by her if she turned her back, however. His first priority was always going to be Cosette and he would not sacrifice her to the world. 

How did one prepare someone for that? Even if he had no qualms about teaching a ten-year-old to be a resistance leader then how did he even do it? He didn’t know but he would have to figure it out. He was right to be concerned about ruining Cosette’s childhood and forcing her into things that she was not ready for but Javert was right, too. Hiding the truth would do Cosette no favors and if she was not ready then the terminators would kill her someday. They might kill her anyway. 

“When we live through all of this?” he repeated quietly. 

“The Cosette whom I met in the future and who sent me back here to protect the two of you certainly did not die anytime soon,” Javert replied. “Clearly she was meant to live. If the two of us do our jobs then she will. If not…well, the world needs Cosette.” 

Valjean nodded and glanced down at his hands. He already knew this, of course. 

“That reminds me,” Javert said absently. “Cosette asked me to give you a message.” 

Valjean’s head shot up. “She did? What was it?” 

“She said that she doesn’t blame you for any of it,” Javert dutifully reported. “It’s rather vague, I’m afraid, but she chose not to elaborate.” 

Valjean narrowed his eyes. On the surface, that sounded very ominous. It implied that he wasn’t there in her future. Though he was a great deal older than her and for all he knew that time she had sent Javert from was when she was in her fifties (in which case he would almost certainly be dead from old age if nothing else) and he knew full well how dangerous this life of theirs was, he did not like the thought that one day he would not be there for Cosette. What did she not want him to blame himself for? Well, not for anything, he supposed, but surely she must be thinking of something in particular. How had he failed her? If he was lucky it was something he had already failed at like Fantine’s death. 

Or maybe he was making too much of this. She wouldn’t send such a message to hurt him. Perhaps everything was fine. Perhaps he was even standing next to her as she gave the message to Javert and she just knew that he had a penchant for feeling guilty and wanted to lessen his burden. He could not imagine himself as a resistance fighter, even now, but he would go wherever Cosette did for as long as she would let him. The Cosette that he knew always hated it whenever she could see that he wasn’t happy. 

“Thank you,” Valjean said. Whatever the reason, it was a message from his beautiful and strong future daughter and he was glad to receive it. 

“Hn.” 

Another silence fell upon them. 

“I still do not trust you,” Valjean declared. 

“I did try to kill Cosette the last time we met as well as succeeding in killing her mother and you have no proof of my sincerity,” Javert allowed. “But still, do you not believe that people can change?” 

Valjean waited for the images that flashed through his mind at that question to settle before smiling grimly and saying, “No, I definitely believe that people can change. This is just all very…sudden. I know it has been ten years since I have last seen you from my perspective and I do not know how long it has been for you but the last time I saw you you were like this new terminator and now you say you want to help us. I find it hard to believe.” 

“You fear me.” 

“I fear anything and anyone that might destroy my daughter,” Valjean replied. “I’m a father and I’ve been assured that this is quite normal.” 

“I wish that I could prove that you have nothing more to fear from me,” Javert told him. “It would certainly make this easier. For now, I suppose you will just have to trust me.” 

“Will I?” Valjean challenged. 

“To an extent,” Javert amended. “You will have to trust me enough that you will allow me to stay and not fight my intention of protecting Cosette. Whether you can succeed in stopping me or not, we really do not need to split our focus like that.” 

“The last time we met you did come across as quite honest,” Valjean mused. Uncomfortably and in some cases painfully honest. He had not left any room for confusion about what he wanted with Cosette and why and he did not pretend he was doing some great and noble thing by targeting an innocent child. 

“You can trust in my honesty then and be reassured,” Javert said. 

But Valjean shook his head. “You say you have changed and clearly you have. Whether that means you have joined our side or just learned to lie I cannot say. Learning to lie seems like the most likely and easier to explain change.” 

“I have not killed you yet and I have helped you flee from the other terminator,” Javert pointed out. “Does that count for nothing?” 

“It is worth something,” Valjean admitted. “Though what it is, I’m not sure yet. I cannot afford to trust blindly, Javert. Even if you were not the one to kill Fantine I would not trust you as easily as that. Cosette is too important.” 

Javert did not look offended. “That is sensible. Cosette is perhaps the single most important human alive right now. I would be annoyed if you were not at least this cautious.” 

“But you intend to prove me wrong?” Valjean asked rhetorically. 

“It does not matter if that is my intent or not,” Javert said. “When I do not try to kill you and when I do whatever is necessary to destroy the other terminator, even if that leads to my destruction as well, you will be proven wrong. It is inevitable.” 

Valjean found the weight of Javert’s conviction difficult to face just then. “Do you need sleep?” 

Javert shook his head. “I am not human.” 

“I’m going to get some rest,” Valjean told him. “I need to be at my best tomorrow and in the days to follow.” 

Javert simply nodded and returned to looking at the stars. 

Valjean turned and opened the motel door. 

“Valjean.” 

He paused but did not turn around. 

“We will succeed here. Cosette will live and grow up to save the future. You will see.” 

Valjean kept walking and shut the door behind him. 

He had not known Javert for very long or very well but it had always been obvious that he was a man of towering conviction. It was his most intimidating trait, in Valjean’s opinion. 

But to see it now used for their benefit? It was…almost comforting. They certainly needed it now and, as much as he might like to pretend otherwise, Valjean was far from certain that this tale would have any happier an ending than his last brush with terminators. He had gotten Cosette then and she was the light of his life but the cost had been too high. 

Perhaps this would work after all. 

Valjean still did not, could not, fully trust Javert but he did have a point about the help he had already provided and it was difficult of look at him and all of his certainty and doubt. 

With Javert’s conviction and Valjean’s dedication, the terminator would soon find that killing this child would not be half as simple as it seemed to think.


End file.
